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The activity of NPO Saturn in the field of innovation as the foundation for small and medium business development in the conditions of entering the world market

Site news 16.02.2012

On February, 15th 2012 an international conference under the theme ‘Modernization and innovation as the strategy of successful integration of small and medium business into the world economic work-sharing under the World Trade Organization’ was held at the Moscow-based Central House of the Entrepreneur. Representatives of 58 Russian regions and 12 foreign countries took part in the forum organized under the aegis of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation and Russia’s Foreign Trade Bank. NPO Saturn OJSC representing large high-tech government business demonstrated to the conference participants its capabilities used as the foundation for developing the innovation-driven infrastructure of small and medium business and a launching pad for entering the world market.

In the conditions of Russia integrating itself into the World Trade Organization, the role of large business as a funnel for small and medium-sized enterprises to join the world economic environment increases. First of all, the role of such funnel is played by industrial high-tech companies that have chosen the innovation way of development and accumulated some good experience of establishing partnerships with foreign companies and operating in the foreign markets. The way NPO Saturn goes about its business today serves as a good example of such development and was highly acclaimed by the participants of this international conference.

According to the chief executive officer of NPO Saturn Ilya Fedorov, the entire business of NPO Saturn is based on innovation: ‘The innovation is not only an idea materialized in metal. It is an idea that sells well. In order to be competitive on product cost, you have to build your business in the most optimal way using all the best lessons learnt by Saturn, building competence centers off this solid foundation, outsourcing all the company’s non-core businesses and constantly increasing the share of the outsourced bill of materials. It is the outsourcing companies that have to become the base for the development of medium and small business, and here I’m talking about the innovation-driven entrepreneurship. These processes are reciprocally beneficial.We are interested to see the emerging small and medium companies as export-oriented and well adapted to operate in the WTO environment. It is worth noting that Saturn has a distinct competitive edge since it possess huge experience of participating in international projects. Our participation in the Russian-French program of developing the SaM146 engine is not the only example of the company joining forces with foreign partners. From this perspective, Saturn is an ideal gateway for small and medium enterprises to enter the export markets. In this case, by outsourcing a specific BOM to the small business enterprises, we shall be able to improve the financial performance of our own company’.

‘The course towards working with small and medium companies is chosen as one of NPO Saturn’s innovation development vectors and is an integral part of the innovation development of the companies in the United Engine Corporation, - says Dmitry Ivanov, NPO Saturn director of innovation development. – It is important that this work be supported at the level of federal and regional authorities’.

The role of the foundation stones in the future infrastructure of the innovation cluster may be given to Saturn Tool Manufacturing Plant CJSC (SatIZ CJSC) – a 100% subsidiary of NPO Saturn and ODK’s competence center for production engineering, and Repair, modernization, service CJSC (ReMO CJSC, a Russian-Czech co-investment project). The first sprouts of the innovation cluster are the small-sized innovation companies built on the premises of the Rybinsk state aviation technical university (RGATU) that jointly with NPO Saturn constitute the cluster’s backbone.

Research and production association Saturn OJSC – an engine-building company specialized in design, manufacture and aftermarket support of gas-turbine engines for military and civil aviation, power-generation and gas-pumping installations, the Navy boats and commercial ships. NPO Saturn OJSC is part of United engine corporation – a 100% subsidiary of the united industrial company OBORONPROM OJSC with the objective of engine-building asset management.

United industrial company OBORONPROM OJSC – a multi-field machine-building group of companies founded in 2002. It is part of GK Russian technologies. Its main fields of business: helicopter building (Helicopters of Russia OJSC), engine building (MC ODK) and other assets.